All posts filed under: fruity cakes and bakes

I won’t insult your intelligence by suggesting that this is some great bake, or indeed, a new idea. I got the inspiration from a coffee chain’s pistachio and amaretti tiffin, but decided to recreate it with my own additions. As with all tiffin, it is very, very simple and a (excluding the amaretto soaked cherries) great thing to make with the kids. It would also make a lovely Christmas gift or addition to serve with coffee at the end of a meal. Ingredients: 100g Dried Cherries (chopped roughly) 40ml of Amaretto 225g Butter 45g Golden Syrup 50g Cocoa Powder 250g Amaretti 50g Pistachios, chopped 200g Milk Chocolate 100g Dark Chocolate Extra Pistachios, freeze Dried Cherries or sprinkles to decorate. Begin a day or two before you want to make the tiffin by soaking the dried cherries in the amaretto. The cherries will plump up and taste delicious. Line an 8′ square baking tray. Melt the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over a gentle heat. Crush the amaretti biscuits fairly finely, then stir through …

It’s that time of year again when I get obsessed with all things autumnal, and, in terms of baking, I love spices like cinnamon, ginger and cardamom, and to use apples, pears, and nuts as key ingredients. Of course, I have succumbed to the American invasion of pumpkin, and love to bake with it during the months leading up to Christmas. It used to be near impossible to get canned pumpkin in the UK, but it is slowly becoming easier to find. When I do find it, however, I tend to stock up, just in case. I decided to make another bundt cake recipe that I could top with another favourite ingredients of mine, maple butter. If you cannot get any, simple make an icing with equal parts maple syrup and icing sugar. So, this is a *big* cake. Don’t make it for just you and your friend having coffee together. I used a large bundt tin. I suppose you could half all of the ingredients and make it in a smaller bundt tin, a …

This is a cake that I adapted from a recipe that I found in delicious. magazine. I made the original a couple of months ago but didn’t care for the icing at all. I decided I wanted to nail a cake with cherry and almond flavours, that featured white chocolate, but it couldn’t be cloying or heavy. I also had various visions of how the final cake would be decorated. But I think I made it too fussy and old fashioned on this occasion and would definitely scale back a bit next time. But I thought it would be helpful to include the process to show that it usually takes a few attempts to get to where you want to be. Ingredients 150g of Plain Flour 50g of Ground Almonds 2 Teaspoons of Baking Powder 300g of Caster Sugar 5 Medium Eggs, separated 1/2 Teaspoon of Cream of Tartar 2 Teaspoons of Vanilla Extract 1 1/2 Teaspoons of Almond Extract 115g of Vegetable Oil 250g of good Cherry Jam Syrup ( if you don’t want …

I can’t take much credit for this recipe: it is based on an old favourite of mine from BBC Good Food magazine, Blackberry and Coconut Squares. I did reduce the amount of sugar and change the flavourings, however. It came about because I saw a large carton of fresh cherries reduced at the supermarket and decided to buy them and give the recipe a new twist. I find with fruity recipes, that I like to alter them according to the season and what’s easily available. Ingredients: 250g of Self Raising Flour 25g of Oats 230g of Light Brown Sugar 200g of Cold Butter, cubed 30g of Ground Almonds 300g Fresh Cherries, stoned and halved 2 Medium Eggs 1/2 Teaspoon of Almond Extract 50g of Flaked Almonds Preheat oven to 180C (160C fan oven) and line an 8″ square baking tin. Put the flour, oats, sugar and butter in a large bowl and rub together until it resembles breadcrumbs. Mix through the ground almonds. Weigh out 150g of this breadcrumb mixture in a separate bowl and add …

This cake is a combination of tweaked recipes from elsewhere and my own imagination. It came about because of my recent obsession with elderflower. I have always loved the flavour of elderflower and knew that people gathered the flowers and made their own cordial and wine, but for some reason I assumed it didn’t grow in Scotland. But since getting our puppy, then moving to our new house and village, I have become much more aware of the passing seasons and the flowers, trees and plants around me. I had a rough idea of what elderflower looked like but wasn’t sure. Then I saw some flowers that I thought might be it whilst out on a walk with the dog. I photographed it and had it confirmed by my friends on a Facebook group, who are keen cooks and bakers. I researched more about collecting and making cordial and decided to give it a try. I decided to use The River Cottage recipe which was very straight forward and easy. During the process I did doubt how …

This recipe came about simply from chancing upon some very pretty apricots at the supermarket. I thought they would be delicious in a frangipane type tart, but then wondered what it would be like to substitute pistachios for the traditional almonds. There was only one way to find out; and I was delighted with the result. I have to say, though, that it’s maybe not the prettiest tart that I’ve ever made, and almost looks savoury. But I can assure you that it is sweet and delicious. Ingredients: 300g of Sweet Pastry 100g of Butter, at room temperature 100g of Caster Sugar 2 Medium Eggs 150g of Pistachios 40g of Self Raising Flour 3 or 4 Apricots Preheat your oven to 180C. Roll out the pastry and line an 8″ tart tin with it, leaving the excess to hang over the edge. Prick the base with a fork several times and refrigerate for at least half an hour. Whilst the pastry is chilling prepare the apricots by cutting them in half and removing …

Greetings from the blogging wilderness. I have moved house, unpacked a little and started to plan a lot. In the mean time, I have been quietly finding my way round my new oven (and planning its replacement). So, with an extension in the offing, blog posts won’t be super frequent, but I hope you will stay with me, and that the odd wee recipe like this will keep you interested. It really is a super simple cake but, I think, very delicious. I tweaked and adapted Felicity Cloake’s Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe and ended up with this. If you want fruity, zingy, and moist, then this is the cake for you. It doesn’t need to be iced or served with cream. And it doesn’t need to be in a bundt tin: a loaf tin or even small round tin would be just as nice. Ingredients: 175g of Butter 175g of Caster Sugar 3 medium eggs 4 Unwaxed Limes (3 might be enough if they are large) 100g of Self Raising Flour 75g of Ground Almonds …

The creation of these came about entirely from the purchase of the snowflake pie mould from Lakeland. Initially, I thought about making regular mince pies with it, then I thought it might be nice to make something equally Christmassy but slightly lighter. I came up with apple and cranberry and the combination, with some Christmas spice, works very well, and would make a great alternative to those who don’t like traditional mincemeat. Ingredients for the filling: 1 Large Bramley Apple (about 250g once peeled, cored and chopped) 50g of Dried Cranberries (soaked overnight in 20g of Vanilla Vodka or orange juice) 100g of Light Brown Sugar 15g of Butter 1 Teaspoon of Vanilla Extract 1/2 Teaspoon of Mixed Spice 1 Stick of Cinnamon 1 Heaped Teaspoon of Plain Flour Zest of an Orange Soak the dried cranberries overnight in the vodka or orange juice to allow them to plump up. Chop the apple into small pieces and combine all the ingredients, except the plain flour, in a large pan and heat on medium. Cook the apple …

It took a while, but I got there in the end with this recipe and beautifully detailed cake. It wasn’t so much the cake recipe, which I adapted from the Nordicware recipe card that came with the Snowflake tin, but getting it out of the damn tin. I had an idea to adapt the almond cake recipe by adding some dried cherries soaked in Amaretto (which, by the way, are awesome on their own). It just felt more festive. Once I had fiddled with the batter amount and worked out the optimum quantity of cherries and soaking liquid, I thought it would be easy to pop the cake straight out using homemade goop (it works on other bundt and detailed pans). But this was not to be. This pan is on a different scale of difficulty to remove cake from. I made it again, coating far more liberally with goop: fail. Then I looked on the internet for advice and it said you should only use a small amount on detailed pans like this, so …

Despite all of my grumblings in the past about the American influence upon our traditional British Hallowe’en, I confess to having fallen head over heels with the way that North America embraces my favourite season, Autumn. By the beginning of this month I found myself heading to TKMaxx (the British version of North America’s TJMaxx) in the hope that there were decorations in reds, browns and golds a plenty, and the greatest hope of all, to find a Nordic Ware “fall” baking pan, and at a bargain price. As you can see from the photograph above, I was successful in finding a modest and seasonal wreath, but the pan was to prove elusive. Enter Jersey Jackie: my dear, dear friend that I made on Instagram; lover of bread baking and pasta making; fellow food nerd; woman of curious mind; and demonstrator of precision skills in all that she does. We had planned for her to come to Scotland for a holiday. We would be meeting for the first time when she landed at Glasgow airport for …